The One Drop Foundation was launched by Cirque du Soleil founder and billionaire Guy Laliberté in 2007. The non-profits mission is to make safe water accessible around the world.
Ever since Laliberté created the world-wide entertainment phenomenon Cirque du Soleil, his core value was to make the world a better place to live. As soon as Cirque du Soleil started making money over 25 years ago, he started giving back. He created the One Drop Foundation to make a change in people’s lives around the world after learning that one person dies every 90 seconds from not having access to clean water.
Not only a brilliant businessman, poker champion and creative force in the world of entertainment, Laliberté also became the first Canadian private space explorer. In 2009, his out-of-this-world mission was dedicated to raising awareness on water issues facing humankind on planet earth.
Jim Dobson at Forbes Magazine spoke exclusively in Las Vegas with Laliberté about the inspiration behind his water charity, the outrageous luxury items he is offering up for auction at this year’s One Drop Gala, (speedboat racing in Lake Como, private jets and more) and his future plans fighting the global water crisis.
Q. Can you tell me how One Drop began? Why are you so passionate about water preservation and access?
“One Drop began to emerge at a time when I was starting to think of how to celebrate Cirque du Soleil’s 25th anniversary. I was thinking on how I wanted us to manage the celebrations; we could have fun and be proud of our international success, or we could look forward and pursue our dream of a better world that has always inspired us.
I started researching and I quickly understood that almost every single issue facing the world today – poverty, health, education, social justice, economic development, environmental issues, gender issues, food security – all have one source in common: water. Addressing water-related issues has a ripple effect on all of these. The situation in each country is different but, to exemplify, when a poor family has access to safe water, all their members have better health, the parents can practice income-generating activities, the children can go to school because they don’t have to walk hours to fetch water, women don’t get harassed on the road to and from the well; These families can grow more crops in a year, sell surpluses at the market, etc. For all these reasons, water is a transformative force.
On a more symbolic level, water is precious because it is the source of life. It has also always been a source of inspiration in my life. Water eases me. That’s probably why my objective is not to hammer people on the head with numbers – I’m more into soft medicine. But there’s one statistic that really struck me at that time: that a child died every 8 seconds from a water-borne disease. I thought this was unacceptable and that I had to do something about it. Today the statistic has improved by 11 times thanks to the hard work accomplished by the key actors of the sector, but the work is not completed and we will not stop.”
Q. Tell me about the future plans for the organization? Any new initiatives you are excited about?
“One Drop has bold plans both in terms of the impact it wants to achieve with its water access programs and in terms of acquiring the means to achieve them through partnerships and creative fundraising initiatives. This year will mark One Drop’s 10th anniversary. Just like for the 25th anniversary of Cirque, we don’t want to tap ourselves in the back and congratulate ourselves. We are celebrating this milestone by launching new programs with the goal of helping more people. We have just started a new project in the State of Rajasthan in India, we are in the planning phase of a third project in Burkina Faso, West Africa, and we will announce in the coming days our most ambitious program ever that is going to transform the lives of over 150,000 people in five Latin-American countries. These projects will bring together corporations, multilateral organizations, international NGOs and dozens of local partners, and represent investments of nearly $80 million.
I’m an entrepreneur, I strive at achieving results, and quickly. In this case, more funding means more projects and more people helped, it’s a pretty simple equation. I am personally contributing $100 million over 25 years – a portion of which covers our administrative costs, meaning that the benefits coming from our fundraising initiatives go directly to the programs. I also use my creative instinct and know-how to move One Drop forward in a unique manner and to develop new ways of raising money. I like to think that One Drop is not taking a slice of the existing pie, but contributes to baking a bigger pie. That is particularly true of our initiatives in the poker sector with our $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop. We have other ground-breaking initiatives in development, notably signature auctions, that will see the light in the next two years.
Q. What do you envision 10 years from now with the world’s water problem?
“You ask that question to a dreamer. I will not quote scientists nor discuss generally admitted projections. I will simply say that it is in the present that we prepare the future. I am concerned by the fact that, still today, a child dies every 90 seconds from a water-borne disease and that hundreds of millions of people live in extreme poverty. We and numerous organizations and institutions do everything in our power today to put a lasting dent into these issues. Doing so, we have to make sure that the solutions we implement on the field are designed to address the issues of sustainability and that they are capable of empowering the local communities while developing their capacities and autonomy. I think we will have achieved our goal when the world will not need us anymore. It may take a little bit more than 10 years, but that’s the only horizon that I look up to. We can choose to wait and do nothing or move forward one drop at a time to make a difference in the long run.
Q. Tell me about this annual charity event in Las Vegas? How did it come about and why Las Vegas?
“One Night for One Drop is an extravagant event imagined by Cirque du Soleil and performed by its artists and guest performers. As its name says, it is performed for one night only, making it a rare and exclusive opportunity. For this fifth edition, it is around 100 artists and creators who are volunteering their time – nearly 20,000 hours! – to make magic happen at the Zumanity Theater in the New York-New York Hotel & Casino. The event raised over $24 M since 2013 for the tickets sales, through pledges and donations, and through the signature auction. The excitement of some of the packages the team creates are quite enticing for many individuals who are ready to spend on these unique items, knowing that the proceeds are going to the foundation.
Las Vegas is the best place for an event like that. Like no other city in the world, the city is built in the desert and had to adopt creative solutions to deal with water consumption and preservation. The people of Las Vegas realize the importance of water and know that it is a privilege to open the tap and see it pour. Intuitively, they have an understanding of the difficulties that are facing people in underdeveloped countries. The other reason is of course the presence of seven Cirque du Soleil shows in the city and the amount of talent that participates in these shows; One Night for One Drop offers the artists and creators a chance to put forward a different side of what they can do by creating new numbers or by participating in a different way, for example when a dancer becomes a choreographer, or when a musician becomes a composer. The great relationship with our longstanding partner MGM Resorts International is also a central reason.”
Q. The auction sounds fabulous. Tell me how the speed boat package in Lake Como came together. Have you experienced the race before?
“Every year we look for packages that are ultra-exclusive and have the potential to generate a lot of interest. This year, a dear friend of One Drop who knows how to appeal to adrenaline seekers like me proposed me the idea. I was on board from the moment I heard about it. I have never experienced that type of powerboat before and I’m very excited to feel the extreme speed on the lake. It is the first time ever that a package like that is being auctioned off. This experience is certainly not for everyone but there are people who like to undertake such daredevil stunts… like me!…, and this item is for them.”
Q. Finally, I would love to know your top three favorite places to visit in the world. I know you love spending time on your yacht Tiara, but any destination very special to you?
“Obviously, I particularly enjoy the places where I have homes (among them Hawaii, Ibizi, Canada and the French Polynesian island of Nukutepipi, where he plans on building a solar powered private resort.) But I am a citizen of the world, and to choose only three would not bring justice to the scope of amazing places there are in the world. I am still in wonderment with discovering sometimes new places, sometimes old favorites all over again.”
{ SOURCE: Forbes | https://goo.gl/tUQfmB }
